Edit This Favorite

What is the Kansas Economics of Law Practice Report?

During the spring of 2017, The Kansas Bar Association surveyed the legal community on the economics of law practice considering similar studies undertaken in 2012, 2005, and 1997. The objectives of all studies were to derive and report the following:

Demographics of practicing attorneys, including views on economic sentiment

Associate, legal assistant, and secretary 2017 annual compensation by years of experience (tenure) and office location

Prevailing average 2017 hourly billing rates for attorneys arrayed by a variety of indicators, and for legal assistants by years of experience, firm size and office location

Attorney time allocated to billable and non-billable professional activities

Fixed expense and gross revenues per attorney and overhead rates associated with maintaining a private law practice by office location and firm size, and

Contemporary law office management and marketing practices

This information has been organized here to help guide attorneys plan and manage their professional lives. They can compare themselves and their firms against benchmarks/ norms established from aggregating survey data. These benchmarks consider one or more of the following variables: office location, firm size, practice class, area of legal concentration/primary field of law and years in practice. Attention is also given to analysis of gender-specific factors influencing income gaps. Time series information is also provided to denote trends.

Does this report cost anything?

Non-members can purchase a digital copy of the report online for $100.

Special Thanks

We thank Angel Zimmerman for her hard work and dedication in working on and completing this project. We also thank KBA staff members Deana Mead, Meg Wickham, and Ryan Purcell for their involvement and hard work in making this happen. We thank our statistician, Lawrence Stiffman, Ph. D., MPH, for his work in compiling and presenting this information.